akrish

Another month has come and gone. Wow time really flies when you’re at school and have tons of work to do every day. I spent a decent amount of time listening to music, but not much of it was really new.

I’ve been listening to a lot of “plain-old” rock the likes of Dead Poetic, Lorene Drive, Chasing Victory, along with some other stuff like Muse, The Mars Volta.
I also found out that a lot of the bands I used to listen to have been coming out with new albums so I’ve been listening to some of that too. In list form we have:

• Thrice – The Alchemy Index: Volume 1 & 2: Fire & Water – this is actually very different from older Thrice stuff (which I’ve been enjoying for a couple of years now, but also very good. I really like the “water” part of the album which is really nice and mellow)
• Thursday – Kill the House Lights – This albums all right, I really liked their older work, but recently they’ve been starting to slip in my eyes. I’ve been listening to it a bit mostly because I hoped this album would be like the old albums.
• Jimmy Eat World – Chase This Light – I’m starting to like Jimmy Eat World a lot more, I’ve only listened to this album a couple of times since I got it, but it sounds pretty good. I should probably listen to it a bit more.
• Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV: Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow – Coheed and Cambria continue to amaze me with creative and new work. I really enjoy all of the albums that I have of theirs and in particular like almost all of the songs on this one.
• Brand New – I have a couple of their albums and like all of them. These guys are probably my favorite band right now.
•   The Mars Volta – Amputechture – I’ve had this for awhile but never really listened to it. One of my friends played some Mars Volta in his car recently and I decided I’d give them another shot. I actually really like the songs on this album, even though they are a little out there.

Despite not having a lot of free time, I’ve been trying to play as much guitar as possible (which unfortunately hasn’t been much). I’ve shifted even more into the world of acoustic guitar and barely played my electric this month. Here’s what I’ve been working on:

• Acoustic Alchemy – The Wind of Change – a short little song that sounds really good when they play it. It sounds ok when I play it but it wasn’t too hard to learn. It’s also really fun to play.
• Acoustic Alchemy – The Alchemist – this is a fun, kinda fast song that I’ve started to learn. It’s harder that songs I’m typically ready for but I’m working on it.
• Andy McKee – Rylynn – If you haven’t seen/heard of Andy McKee please check this out. He’s absolutely amazing and Rylynn is a really awesome song. It’s ridiculously hard, but I’ve been making some steady progress and have the beginning parts of it down.

I’ve also been freestyling/jamming with one of my friends a lot. He ends up playing the electric and I’ll play some stuff on the acoustic. I find this a lot more fun than just playing by myself so hopefully we’ll keep doing that.

On a really random music note, I started listening to mainstream rap a bit this month. Yes it’s very uncharacteristic for me and recently I haven’t been listening as much, but I found a couple of songs to be pretty catchy.

Anyway, that’s the November Music Recap

I didn’t do this for September but my music hasn’t been changing that frequently (mostly due to school). Here’s the recap:

Albums Chiodos – Bone Palace Ballet

Daphne Loves Derby – Good Night, Witness Light

Brand New – The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

Brand New – Deja Entendu

Brand New – Your Favorite Weapon

Scary Kids Scaring Kids – Scary Kids Scaring Kids

Nural – Weight of the World

What I’m playing

Coheed and Cambria – Always and Never

Dashboard Confessional – The Good Fight

And some other songs that I can’t think of off the top of my head. I’ve also been spending a lot more time just free-styling rather than playing songs. It’s a good way for me to be creative and it’s also moving me in the right direction toward writing my own songs.

Unfortunately I haven’t had too much time to play guitar, but I’ve started using music as a way for me to relax which I’m really happy about.

A quick summary of my musical interests in August

What I’m Listening to (Albums):

Paramore – Riot

Mae – The Everglow

Lorene Drive – Romantic Wealth

Saetia – A Retrospective

Bring Me the Horizon – Count Your Blessings

Circle Takes the Square – As the Roots Undo

Daphne Loves Derby

Dashboard Confessional – A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar

What I’m playing (Acoustic):

Jimmy Eat World – Hear You Me

Taking Back Sunday – New American Classic

Dashboard Confessional – Standard Lines, This Old Wound

Daphne Loves Derby – Hopeless Love, Come Winter, Midnight Highway

Three Doors Down – Here Without You, Away From the Sun

What I’m playing (Electric):

John Petrucci – Glasgow Kiss (some of it), Wishful Thinking

Joe Satriani – Love Thing

As I Lay Dying – Confined

I’ve been playing a lot more acoustic guitar recently. I think it’s because my acoustic is on a stand right next to my desk, while my electric is in it’s case hidden away in the corner. At any rate, I’ve started playing and singing a lot more; it doesn’t sound that great but I’ve noticed improvement.

I just got the new Chiodos album today; September looks like it’ll be another good month for music!

Yesterday, I had my first encounter with songwriting and it has given me some new appreciation for the music I listen to. On one hand it wasn’t that difficult for us (I was working with a friend) to come up with some guitar and drum riffs or even some vocal lines, but it was pretty tough combining the different parts so that the end result actually sounds good. It got me thinking about some professional bands (or even some of the composers for orchestra) and how they do a really good job of arranging their different so that each line compliments the others.

My friend (let’s call him Jason) and I have had this dream of starting a band since around our junior year of high school. We even had a couple of practices our senior year and played a couple of Beatles songs for that year’s Homecoming, but we’ve never really tried to write anything before, so it was exciting to finally give it a shot and actually come up with something.

I don’t know much about how other people write songs (except for what I’ve read in some forums) but we started out by coming up with an instrumental part and then trying to add a vocal part to it. Ultimately this didn’t work out, because it turned out to be a lot harder for us to shape lyrics and melody around the instrumental parts. We did come up with some cool riffs that we may end up using later, but we couldn’t find a way to meld our ides into a coherent song. Finally, we scrapped this approach and decided to start afresh.

This time, we focused on the vocals first, coming up with some pretty sweet lyrics and melody for a verse and chorus. Writing lyrics was tough, but Jason thought of a catchy melody that we just hummed while thinking of guitar and drum parts. I came up with a simple chord progression to play under the melody and after some tweaking, it started to sound ok. Jason incorporated a drum part and everything came together into a pretty mediocre song (honestly…). It wasn’t fantastic, but it was definitely a step in the right direction, and for just a couple hours of work, I’d say we did a pretty good job.

Anyway, somethings that I learnt from the yesterday are: keep it simple, go with whatever works, and be patient. I realized that the reason we couldn’t line up vocals with instrumental parts in our first attempt was because our instrumental parts were way to complicated. I know it isn’t fun to play boring riffs, but it makes songwriting a heck of a lot easier.

Go with whatever works means that if you can come up with lyrics, write lyrics. If you’re creative on the guitar, write guitar licks. But keep in mind that at some point you’re going to need to do the harder stuff and that the end result is a layered song in which all the parts need to be good. Nobody listens to songs that have insanely cool guitar work if the vocals suck. If you want to write good songs, the way everything comes together is all that matters, but at the same time, when you’re starting out keep track of everything you come up with, and do the things that are easiest for you.

Finally, be patient. Not that I have any experience to be saying this, but good things take time. I’m pretty sure pro musicians can’t write a good song in an hour. I was really surprised with how much Jason and I did yesterday, and I’m sure we’ll have practices where we make no progress, but if we keep at it, eventually we’ll come up with something good. Along these lines, remember that it should be fun. If I’m stressed out, it’s a lot harder for me to be creative.

Again, I have barely any experience with this stuff, and this is just what I picked up from a couple hours of playing yesterday. If you disagree, feel free to let me know.